King Charles to host France's Macron for July state visit to UK

King Charles III is to host French President Emmanuel Macron on a state visit to the UK from July 8-10, the French presidency and British monarchy announced, in a new step towards strengthening relations after Brexit.Macron will also hold talks with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer during the trip, which follows the state visit by Charles to France in September 2023. The king and Queen Camilla will host Macron and his wife Brigitte at Windsor Castle, the British royal family said on its official social media account.Charles's state visit to France in 2023, which saw him deliver an address to parliament in French and attend a glittering state banquet thrown by Macron at the Palace of Versailles, was widely regarded as a success that helped boost relations.There were severe political tensions between Paris and London in the immediate aftermath of Brexit under the previous right-wing Conservative British government, with both sides also unable to find a strategy to halt the perilous small boat crossings across the Channel between the countries.But there has been a new warmth in relations under the centre-left Labour government led by Starmer, with the British premier and Macron now leading European efforts to find a just peace for Ukraine.The importance of the France-UK relationship was again in evidence at the weekend when Starmer and Macron, joined by new German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, travelled by train to Kyiv for talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.